Israel Detains Denver Cult Members

The Washington Post

Sunday, January 3, 1999; 11:31 a.m. EST

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli police detained eight adults and six children belonging to a Denver-based apocalyptic Christian cult on Sunday, and accused the group of planning violent acts in Jerusalem.

The cult members -- comprising three families -- did not resist arrest when police raided two apartments in suburbs outside Jerusalem, police spokesman Shmuel ben Ruby told The Associated Press.

``The arrests were carried out to protect certain sectors of the Israeli population and members of the cult themselves who blindly follow'' a leader who is now overseas, a police statement said.

The cult's leader has been identified as Monte Kim Miller.

Seventy members of the ``Concerned Christians'' cult disappeared from Denver in October and were believed to be living in the Jerusalem area.

The Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, had information that cult members planned ``extremist acts'' in the streets of Jerusalem toward the end of 1999, the police statement said.

The cult members hoped such acts would accelerate the second coming of Jesus Christ, the statement said.

The 78 members of the Concerned Christians who vanished in October include members who are white and black, married and single, white-collar professionals and unemployed laborers.

They range in age from infancy to 68.

Miller is the 44-year-old former Denver resident who has said he's one of the final two witnesses prophesied in the Bible in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation. He claims he is destined to die in the streets of Jerusalem in the final days of December 1999.